You will need to be able to receive and answer one verification phone call from Google Voice, when you begin the porting process on the Google Voice website. Google will call the phone number you submit, and you will enter a two-digit code on your phone's keypad. That's it.

Ahh... It sounds like I will need to be able access the GV website and specifically the porting page while my feature phone has a Tmobile signal.

So, sitting in my car I can access the GV website with my Android phablet through my existing Tmobile data service, but are those GV porting pages mobile friendly? Or, do they insist that I be on a desktop browser?

I'd like to have my ducks in line before making the hour long pilgrimage to the nearest Tmobile signal.

No luck here. Ported my Comcast landline to ATT Go Phone (walked into store with old iphone, asked for pay as you go plan for .25/min. Put the minimum $10 on it.) All for $10 and change. Waited for the port to complete. Attempted to port the number to GV. Got the error

"Porting your mobile number to Google Voice is unavailableYour mobile number can not be ported at this time.- This number appears to be from an area we don't currently support for porting."

Currently in process porting another number from Vonage to ATT Go Phone also but not optimistic that I will be able to move that one to GV either. Both numbers were originally Level3 owned numbers so I assume if the first doesn't work, the second won't work either.

The plan was to port our main home number to my wife's GV number and the secondary number to mine and use them both with the OBi202 I purchansed. Am I out of options attempting to keep my numbers while removing my monthly payments?

If the Google Voice porting dashboard displays that message, then there is no way to port in the number(s).

You could either get a new number from Google's supply of free numbers (which might not be in your local calling exchange), or you can give up on Google Voice, and instead, port into a SIP VoIP service provider like Callcentric, voip.ms or Phonepower. These smaller service providers often work with multiple CLECs (Bandwidth.com, Level 3, etc), and they may be able to port in your number. Google only uses Bandwidth for hosting ported-in numbers (they have an enormous contract with BW, making it more cost effective than using multiple carriers).

That's what I figured. Bummer. I assume I can port the numbers to callcentric. Get their $6/mo unlimited personal receive call plan, and use the GV numbers to dial out with? That would let me keep both numbers for $12/mo which is still much less than what I was paying for Vonage and Comcast. Seems to be the cheapest way to keep my numbers for incoming calls. Again, this is all with the OBi202.

That's what I figured. Bummer. I assume I can port the numbers to callcentric. Get their $6/mo unlimited personal receive call plan, and use the GV numbers to dial out with? That would let me keep both numbers for $12/mo which is still much less than what I was paying for Vonage and Comcast. Seems to be the cheapest way to keep my numbers for incoming calls. Again, this is all with the OBi202.

You can do that, and/or you can just abandon Google Voice entirely, and use Callcentric for both inbound and outbound calling. The advantage of going all-Callcentric will be that your outbound calls will display your correct caller ID for the two inbound lines. Depending on your outbound call volume, it isn't that much more money to subscribe to an outbound calling plan. Besides, you need E911 service, and Google Voice can't call 911.

For example: I subscribe to their North America 500 plan, for $6.95/month. It includes the 911 service that would otherwise be $1.50/month. Even their North America Basic plan for $1.95 month gives you 120 minutes plus 911.

I am very comfortable with Google Voice. It's not 100% perfect, but it meets my needs well enough. I have been using it for at least five years, even before I bought my Obi.

In fact, I am about to do this again for my parents' long-standing landline number.

Google Voice will not port landline numbers, but will port numbers from cell phones.

The way around this was as follows: I bought a T-Mobile prepaid SIM card for $7.49 through Ebay, I bought one month of service and ported my landline number over to them. Then I ported the T-Mobile number over to Google Voice.

Last time I tried this was exactly two years ago and it worked out well. -- I don't use that number anymore, but I had it for 20 years and wanted to keep it. It's the number I give to everybody when I have to sign up for something from my Kroger card to all my credit cards. Their telemarketers can call there as much as they want.

AT&T is fine. Note that there are two different services: The traditional AT&T Wireless postpaid plans, and AT&T GoPhone, the prepaid subsidiary. When submitting the porting form to Google, be sure you have obtained the correct information from AT&T or from GoPhone. The account number for GoPhone is not displayed anywhere you can see; you need to contact them and ask for it.

It's crucial to follow the process methodically, and not to get impatient and rush things.

Ooops! We currently don't support porting from your carrier. We apologize and are working on adding support for more carriers.

Ooops! This number appears to be from an area we don't currently support.

If you get the "area" error, then your number cannot be ported to Google Voice, regardless of first porting it to a mobile carrier. The other two messages mean you're likely to be successful.

Wait several dayts after porting it from the land line to the mobile carrier, and ensure that you can both make and answer voice calls on the mobile phone, and send and receive text messages. Do NOT attempt to port it into Google Voice before that point.

The best and cheapest way to port from a landline or even mobile to Google Voice is to actually port to Google Project Fi first since basically you just need to order a phone too and pay for it first.

After the phone arrives, you activate the Google Project Fi service and then port. When the porting is complete, you cancel the Project Fi service which is $0.67/day + tax and you basically return the phone for a refund which Google will provide prepaid return shipping label for.

When you cancel Google Project Fi, you can keep the same number on Google Voice for free. If you port your phone number to Google Voice from anyone else, there is a $30 porting fee on the Google Voice side.

Do not do this. It is not the intended way to port a number to Google Voice.

The best and cheapest way to port from a landline or even mobile to Google Voice is to actually port to Google Project Fi first since basically you just need to order a phone too and pay for it first.

After the phone arrives, you activate the Google Project Fi service and then port. When the porting is complete, you cancel the Project Fi service which is $0.67/day + tax and you basically return the phone for a refund which Google will provide prepaid return shipping label for.

When you cancel Google Project Fi, you can keep the same number on Google Voice for free. If you port your phone number to Google Voice from anyone else, there is a $30 porting fee on the Google Voice side.

That is a pretty heinous scam, wasting Google's money and rendering that very expensive phone unable to be resold as new.

Just do what everybody else does: port the land line into a T-Mobile or GoPhone prepaid service, using any old compatible mobile phone, wait a few days for everything to work properly, and then port it to Google Voice

I ported my landline to ATT cellular (iphone) on 10/22, as of today, 10/25 I can receive and make calls via my cell phone as well as receive and send texts. Oddly I can't receive phone calls to my iphone from a landline phone number just yet, just other cell numbers. If a landline calls my cell number my house landline rings. I think this will remedy itself when my landline account (FIOS) officially closes my account which is scheduled for 10/26. if all goes well I will then port my iphone number to Google Voice. PS: My landline is still functional at my home until they officially close my account.

If you want to route your Google Voice number's inbound calls to a Callcentric phone number, then that CC phone number will be receiving voice telephone calls on your attached phone. If you also plug in a fax machine, you need to either set it to not auto-answer inbound calls, or you need to get another (second) Callcentric number, and dedicate that number to your fax machine. In so doing, you'd set the ring pattern for the second number to be a "distinctive ring" pattern, and your fax machine would have to be able to properly handle answering only on the distinctive ring.

Callcentric also has an inbound fax mailbox service, which can receive inbound faxes and email you the document as a file.

As for outbound fax, sometimes it's flaky, due to VoIP technology vs. fax technology, but you could fax from either the GV number or the CC number.

Has anyone known of someone that has "rolled the dice" and ordered a prepaid SIM card and completed all the porting over without making test calls, texts, etc. in a unlocked phone? Only reason I ask is I do not own a unlocked cell (have a locked Verizon) and am trying to avoid buying one just for the purpose of a quick test. Thanks!